Taking a night train through Europe, as I learned when I went to Budapest, is not exactly fun. Our car from Berlin to Paris was full (six people, at least five languages) and it was about twelve hours long. Oh, and I was the only guy. I spent most of the time sleeping and practicing what's left of my Spanish (I need to get back on that) and reading. In Krumlov I had picked up a copy of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon, and I must say it was a fantastic read.
We arrived around 9:30 AM at Paris Est. Having been there previously with my father for Christmas, I was looking forward to returning to this enchanting city. Meredith, having studied a bit of French in high school and college, was looking forward to finding out just how much she could remember. When we checked in to our budget hotel, we discovered how useful her skills would be. The people working did not speak any English. It made sense, in the same way that many people in the Czech Republic didn't, but it was unexpected. We got it all figured out pretty quickly and we were off to explore Paris.
First we went to lunch near the Bastille monument... there's nothing there now. We headed to the Notre Dame cathedral and crossed over to the Latin Quarter. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we found a park and just sat down and relaxed. Meredith even took a nap.
Later on, we took a boat ride to see all the sites. When I went there in December 2008, France held the rotating title of EU Presidency (which, as of last week, is all changing). They held it for six months straight, and then it moved to the Czech Republic. So the Eiffel Tower was lit up like a giant EU flag. This time I got to see it in all its normal colored glory.
Incidentally, when France was EU president, they spent more than any other country in history on the temporary displays.
We wandered up to Montmarte and had dinner. Paris is a lovely place for a date.
The entire trip revolved around going to the Louvre museum. Meredith wanted to go, I wanted to go, and it was the one thing I wish I had done on Christmas, if I had had the time. So we got up and went to the museum the following day.
To start with, I was surprised by the size of the place. Duh, it's the biggest museum in the world, it's a palace, etc etc etc. But it's hard to imagine that until you actually see it. The first thing we went to was the Egyptian section. Meredith's really into Egyptian mythology, which is cool and all, but I got plenty of that in the Vatican. The Louvre has a lot more than the Vatican in that department, although both have plenty.
I even found my favorite dog deity, Anubis.
And Meredith has her cats.
After several hours looking at the Book of the Dead, mummies, tombs, statues, etc, we decided that we needed to see some art. We stumbled upon the Venus de Milo, although we came towards it in the wrong direction.
We went to a few halls full of statues, including Psyche Waking Cupid, Meredith's favorite. We saw two of Michaelangelo's captives (the others are in the hallways of Accademia in Florence, near David).
We went looking for some paintings. We found plenty that are famous and plenty that aren't.
And yeah, we saw the Mona Lisa, but it's behind a huge pane of glass, so what's to say about it?
The Louvre was totally worth it. I want to go to Orsay sometime.
We decided to walk to the Champs-Elysees from the Louvre, so that we could see the Arc de Triomphe and all the shops. We came across this lovely statue, which we decided was the most embarrassed statue in the world:
Poor guy.
Once we got closer to the Avenue, we noticed a HUGE crowd. We thought it was either Sarkozy or a protest, so we came a little closer. We noticed some American flags, so we assumed it was a protest, but it wasn't an angry protest like I've seen. Then a big motorcade full of cars came through with American flags on them, and people were running towards it. It was like seeing Elvis or something. We stopped and asked a security guard in front of a restaurant what was going on. His reply? "American President."
So yeah, I've seen Obama twice now, and neither time was in the USA.
Paris was lovely. We saw what we wanted to see, and I'd go back in a heartbeat. We had one more stop to go before heading back to Prague and heading back to home...
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